As Emmanuel they lay there forcefully pinned by the massive bull. He looked at the creatures surrounding him. They looked like monstrous children with their petite stature and relatively gangly frames. But upon further examination, he noticed lean muscle. They were nonhumans, he figured, as their skin was a pea-green and they had ears so dangerously oversized that it was surprising they were even able to fit on their heads. Five of these things stared at him with yellow eyes. They all had spears which usually would be threatening but the spears looked like they would fall apart with any force. Frankly, he was more threatened by the tetanus he would surely get from the rusty things.
Doing what most people would when confronted by five little green men with spears, Emmanuel tried to break free of his confinement. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any handholds to lever himself from underneath the corpse, and the seven-ton bison wouldn't let go of him so easily. He knew if he could break free the fight against the men would be easy, laughably easy in fact. But instead, he was stuck. The green men didn't waste the opportunity. One of them seemed to pull a thick black chain out of thin air and started to tie him up. Two more of the green bastards joined while the remaining two tried in vain to remove Emmanuel’s sword from the buffalo's eye socket. It was quite comical to see the two creatures scramble around the corpse trying to remove the sword.
But eventually, with a combined effort, the two retrieved his mighty Excalibur from its corpse stone, while the others somehow managed to pull him out from underneath the buffalo. His legs put up a valiant effort but at the last he fell to the overpowering might of the three green men. Completely immobilized, Emmanuel tried to use his increased strength to break the chains. The chains didn't even make a sound. Starting to get tired of calling them green men he decided to call the group Greenies because of their green skin.
The Greenies lifted him and then dropped him. He wondered why they had lifted him in the first place but upon rotating his head and looking at one of the bastards he saw a strained expression on its face.
Apparently the Greenies weren't strong enough to lift him, which was a bit surprising considering they somehow managed to move him from underneath the buffalo. But with admirable persistence, they were able to drag Emmanuel using the chains with which they had bound him.
Emmanuel had never been dragged like a corpse before and if he could help it, he would never allow that to happen to himself ever again. He felt like the Greenies were doing something wrong. They were extremely inefficient: only one would pull on him; then, when that one got tired, they switched. Surely it'd be a whole lot fucking easier to have a team “effort” and to pull him constantly, but nooo they had to have an extremely jerky (and annoying) pulling method.
After a while -- and several scrapes, bumps, and bruises from being dragged later -- the Greenies finally stopped dragging him. One of the problems with laying on the ground is you can't see that high and to say the flora and fauna of this region were massive would be an understatement. As a result he could see nothing but grass. But hey, look at the silver lining: at least he wasn't being dragged along the ground anymore.
A couple of seconds later he was picked up. Hoping this time he wouldn't be promptly dropped, he looked around. He spotted a wagon. He immediately knew what the Greenies were going to do with him and the wagon. He was worried about the ride in the said wagon.
It was not taken care of well. In fact, it looked like it was held together by prayers and bubblegum. Hoping that the wagon would bear his weight he braced for impact.
The Greenies threw him onto the wagon but, besides the foreboding creaking sound as he landed, nothing happened. Although certainly not the smoothest ride he ever had, it was a considerable improvement to being dragged through the dirt. Before he knew it another Greenie had appeared. This Greenie had what seemed to be a massive rabbit hanging off the edge of its spear. Besides a quick nod to the other Greenies, there was no exchange. Then a wagon pulled up beside theirs. On this wagon was a dead buffalo and three more Greenies.
Slowly but surely more and more Greenies arrived. Ranging from lone hunters to a massive caravan at least 100 strong, the population of green men slowly grew from five to well over three thousand. Amongst the hundreds of pelts worn, or carried in the wagons, he spotted something. Turning his head he saw a familiar silver pelt.
The pelt was still poorly butchered and now was covered with a thin layer of dirt. But he knew that pelt. After all, he was the one who killed the beast and then proceeded to do such a hor… excellent job of skinning it. So how did the Greenies have the pelt? He remembered dropping it in the field. They must have just stumbled across it. There were thousands of the little buggers, so it made sense; that they wouldhave come across it.
Although the logical side of Emmanuel’s brain said he had just left the pelt out there, the more emotional side protested. After all, he had almost died. He nearly died killing that wolf. Then he lugged that goddamn pelt through the portal only for it to be taken away by some scrawny green brats. No way. He would have none of this.
“Give me back my goddamn pelt, you good-for-nothing ass-pricking motherfucking Greenies!”
A couple of the things seemed to turn their heads and perhaps even understand what he was saying. The shock that they understood him shut him up for a second; then he remembered the second skill he got with his class -- the gift of gab -- and continued.
“If you don't give me back my pelt…” he said, nodding his head towards the wolf pelt, “I'll cut off your left arm and stick it so far up your ass that it will reemerge from your throat.”
Upon hearing his tirade one of his captors quickly scampered up with a cloth in its bony hands. It ducked behind him before he could shout more, and tied the cloth around his neck, muting him. Looking at the creature that put the cloth around his mouth with a glare of such hatred it could melt a lava Golem, Emmanuel promised himself that once he was free he would cut off each of the Greenie's limbs one by one. And force feed them to its next of kin.
The Caravan of wagons continued to trundle on as the sun slowly rose to its zenith and then began to fall. Soon enough dusk approached and, at long last, the wagons stopped. Before the Caravan stood a great wall.
In Emmanuel's youth his grandfather took him to China to participate in a sword-fighting tournament. During that trip, they visited the Great Wall. It was one of his fondest memories. He remembered, as a child, staring up at the mass that was the Great Wall. The Great Wall was impressive for a multitude of reasons: its length, sure, but also how it was constructed.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
This Wall in comparison was nowhere near as long but was just as impressive. Stretching an impressive 20 m or more into the air, the wall was made of jagged black slate. Atop the wall Emmanuel spied tens of thousands of Greenies armed to the teeth. They looked like they could handle just about anything.
The gatehouse was equally as grand as the wall itself, and resembled the maw of a great beast. On further inspection, Emmanuel thought it was a skull from some sort of bird-like creature. The problem with that was the size of the skull. It was at least as tall as the wall and probably 50 or more meters in length. It boggled the mind: How would a creature that big existed? Moreover, he wondered how the Greenies were able to take that thing down. Thinking back to his first encounter, those five Greenies weren't even able to lift him on the first attempt. but then again there were probably tens of thousands of the little guys
Passing through the maw of the beast he almost felt like it would drop down, trapping him within its jaws forever. Luckily nothing seemed to happen and they entered the city proper.
Unlike the Greenies’ dilapidated carts, the city was extremely well maintained. The roads were polished and smooth cobblestone streets, with not a sign of garbage anywhere. Regiments of guards patroled in choreographed patterns. One such guard peeled from his battalion and walked over to talk to one of his Greenie captors.
“Found the thing underneath the course of a dawn grass bison,” the Greenie explained.
The guard, hearing this, looked at Emmanuel with a shocked expression. “Really?”
“Yep, it seems the things somehow managed to kill it judging by the sword through its eye.”
The guard didn't say anything in response for a couple of seconds. Then it seemed to make up its mind.
“Is it male?”
The other Greenies seemed confused. “Yes, I believe so.”
“What a shame. But, since we have no use for it, we'll just throw it into the dungeon until we figure something out.”
The Greenie that captured him quickly nodded and walked over toward him. The Greenie grabbed the loose end of the chain and handed it to the guard.
“Thank you. Once you've dropped off your supplies, go to the Chancellor's office and you will be rewarded for your efforts.”
The Greenie nodded and its companions and it vanished into the bustling hubbub of the city.
Of course, that left Emmanuel alone. Well, except for the guard. He once again tried to break his chains but they were still as stubborn as ever. The guard didn't react; just continued to stand there. Upon seeing another guard, the one holding his chain, seemed to make some sort of strange signal. Then the other guard responded in kind.
He was surprised that they didn't move but then again what did he know?
A couple of times the guard would stop a Greenie before entering the city, ask them about their business, and let them continue. In the meantime he continued to scan The Horde. The minutes continued to pass by and the dread in his stomach deepened. There was no sign of anything else but the Greenies. No other humans or other sentient races. Being utterly alone and able to stew in his emotions certainly didn't help the situation.
He wondered for a brief moment if the Greenies were another race that was going through the culling. But looking at the impressive city, he extremely doubted it. Although, there was magic; so, maybe?
After looking at the crowd for a while, something quickly became apparent to Emmanuel. Not all of the Greenies looked like the guard or the Greenies that captured him. Around one in ten of them were much taller and had some decent muscle mass. If you were to compare the two Greenies, the ones that captured him looked like Hunters from the Stone Age; these individuals looked more like Adventurers from an MMO. And instead of looking like children, these Greenies look more like teenagers obsessed with steroids. The bigger Greenies also seemingly had much better equipment. Most were wearing some modicum of armor and their weapons weren't rusted, chipped, or broken.
But eventually, all things must come to an end. The sun finally gave its dying breath. A dozen Greenies emerged from the shadows. Frankly, they were not that impressive. They looked like carbon copies of the guard holding his chain. Malnourished, short, and unable to beat a toddler in arm wrestling. But seeing as he was completely chained up, had no equipment, and they outnumbered him, he complied without putting up a fuss.
The Greenies, realizing that he wouldn't make it very far with his legs tied up, untied just his legs. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to be comfortable or for him to be able to move fast but he could move without falling flat on his face.
Then the Greenies surrounded him and began to frog march him forward. The civilian Greenies seemed to part before the soldiers like the Red Sea parted for Moses and, soon enough, a hush fell over the Greenies.
Emmanuel felt thousands of eyes rest upon him. After all, to the Greenies, he was as alien as they were to him. The only sound that he could hear was the marching of the Soldier's feet in rhythm on the cobblestones. He expected the greenies to throw rotten vegetables, rocks, eggs, or something. He expected them to laugh, to mock him. But instead, they just stared. Silently judging, weighing his life in their hands.
Their stares reminded him of the wolf's smugness And like when that wolf gave him that stare something inside of him moved. He heaved, stretching his arms as far as they could go. And this time, the chains rattled. All the greenies seemed to flinch from him at once. Then the soldiers realized what they had done and quickly tightened their formation. But in that moment the Greenies realized that he would not be cowed so easily. The crowd parted and returned to their monotony.
Soon enough the soldiers halted their marching and they stood before a massive building. The building reminded him of a Victorian Palace. just enough ornamentation to establish the idea of power and wealth but not quite enough to simply tear off a chunk of the building to sell
All of the buildings in the Greenies town looked like they were from some part of medieval Europe. One of the Greenies guards knocked on the elaborate mahogany doors of the manor. A couple of minutes later it was opened by one of the bigger Greenies.
“What?”
“We have a prisoner”
“Humph.” The original Greenie soldier handed over Emmanuel's chain to the bigger Greenie quickly. The bigger Greenie was nowhere near as “gentle”.
The Greenie quickly tugged him inside and led him to yet another door. Opening it, he tugged on the chain once more, and Emmanuel begrudgingly followed. The door led to a winding set of stairs, poorly lit by the light of infrequent lanterns.
He found that walking on stairs again was hard. He was constantly slipping and falling on his face. After one particularly nasty fall, the Greenie didn't wait for him to get up; he just continued walking. As a result, his face was constantly bouncing down the stairs. Eventually, they reached the bottom. The Greenie thankfully gave him enough time to stand and then he was greeted by a gruesome sight.
Greenies and other humanoid races hung from what looked like massive fish hooks from the ceiling. They weren't alive, Emmanuel was sure, due to the excessive amounts of blood and the missing heads, limbs, and vital organs on some.
Walking forward he started to hear cries of pain and agony. Looking to his left and right there were cells filled with prisoners. Soon enough they came to an empty cell. The Greenie reached down to his waist and grabbed a ring of keys that Emmanuel hadn't noticed. The Greenie unlocked the door and threw him in.
Looking around his new home he wasn't particularly happy with his sleeping arrangements or the lack thereof. it was just a cell; empty except for two chains looming over his head.